Jul. 15, 2013

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Regal Beloit has been paying more than $200,000 in property taxes annually, more than 70 percent of which goes to the Springfield school district. But a school official said it’s not likely to result in a big hit for the district’s overall revenue total.

Wisconsin-based Regal Beloit announced last week that it plans to close its Springfield facility.

Chief Financial Officer Steve Chodes said the school’s tax base is more than $3 billion, making a loss of less than $150,000 less substantial.

He also said the school isn’t likely to lose that entire amount, because someone would probably still own the Regal property and pay taxes on it.

Other entities that would lose tax revenue include the city of Springfield — about $24,000 was paid by Regal last year — and the library system — about $10,000 was paid last year.

According to the Greene County Collector’s Office, Regal Beloit paid $201,404.91 in property taxes in 2012.

The majority of that, almost $120,000, was from taxes on the land and building itself, while the remainder was tax from personal property, like equipment and tools.

If the school district only loses taxes on the personal property with Regal’s closing, the hit shrinks to about $60,000.

Those personal property taxes are set to decline even before the plant closes. According to the Greene County Assessor’s Office, the assessed value of the company’s property dropped by 68 percent this year.

The assessed value of the property is just $525,580 this year, compared to more than $1.64 million the year before. And that number is down from $2.39 million in 2011.

As for a loss of the workforce in Springfield, chamber of commerce spokesman Rob Dixon said he doesn’t expect the community will actually experience that. “The Missouri Career Center had more than 1,200 openings (Thursday) morning,” he said. “And our civilian workforce is about 225,000.”

Dixon also said the employees at Regal Beloit have good manufacturing experience and should be valuable hires for other manufacturers in the area.